Summer is almost upon the northern hemisphere, and official camping season is just around the corner. An important and integral part of any camping trip, be it car camping, backpacking or just a day camp in the woods, is camping food. It never ceases to amaze me how simple ingredients cooked on a fire can become so delicious just by the change of settings.

There are lots of websites offering camping recipes and cooking tips, and the variety of recipes that exist is amazing. If you’re planning a camping trip, it’s time to browse these recipes and refresh your repertoire. If you live in the southern hemisphere, bookmark and save for next year!

Scoutorama.com

Scoutorama offers a huge list of camping and Dutch oven recipes. The recipes are crudely divided into breakfast, lunch and dinner, but these can easily be switched around and used for any meal. All lists contain a good amount of dessert recipes as well.

To make is easier to find specific recipes, the site also offers an advanced recipe search, where you can search for recipes by keywords, meal type and type of camping. The recipes are plain text with no images whatsoever; just a list of ingredients, equipment and preparation. Recipes have user ratings, which are visible only from within the recipe.

Camp Recipes

Camp Recipes includes 741 recipes, divided into 18 different categories. For each category, you can browse a list of recipes which includes difficulty, number of servings and prep time for each recipe. It’s also indicated whether a recipe is suited for backpacking. Here too, there are no images, but the recipes are short and to the point with a list of ingredients and preparation directions.

You can search through the recipes only by keywords. The website also features a blog, where you can find more recipes and cooking tips.

KOA – Kampgrounds of America

KOA’s website provides lots of camping information aside from recipes, and you can use the site to find KOA campgrounds around the US and Canada, and even book your next camping trip on a KOA camping site. Concentrating on the important thing (food), the site offers recipes divided into five categories, within each you can browse recipes by the alphabet.

Some recipes are submitted by KOA itself, while others were submitted by readers.

About.com

About.com has several articles about camping food, but this recipe index is especially useful. Here you can look for recipes by main ingredient, by course and by cooking method. So if you want only recipes prepared by foil wrapping, or only recipes with shrimp, this is an excellent source. All recipes are on About.com, and have been submitted by readers.

Another About.com recipe article worth mentioning is Popular Camping Recipes, where you can also browse recipes by categories, and includes a useful list of other cooking articles at the bottom.

BBC GoodFood

What sets GoodFood’s recipe list apart from most others, is that most of these recipes weren’t originally intended for camping. While this can render some of them less useful, it’s also a good source for recipes you may not find anywhere else. GoodFood classifies recipes as suitable for camping if they are very easy to make, usually in one single pan, or if they’re suitable to take on trips after having prepared them at home.

In this spirit, you will find here recipes for all sorts of simple muffins, along with things like no-oven pizza to cook in a frying pan and tin foil roasted sweet potatoes. All recipes include user ratings, difficultly level and prep times.

Serious Eats

Serious Eats is a a good website to know if you’re a foodie in general, but this specific article is going to turn your next camping trip into a culinary dream. While these recipes may not be suitable if you’re looking for super simple recipes to make in 5 minutes, they will definitely be worth the effort if you’re ready to put some into them.

This is one of the only websites that include images alongside the recipes, and many of them also include a story or introduction before they get down to business.

Taste of Home

Taste of Home offers a nice list of camping recipes, complete with images and user ratings. There are also several informative videos you can watch, such as how to make a Pudgie Pie in a waffle iron and other camping recipes. Scroll down, and you’ll find a list of other related articles you can enjoy.

While there aren’t a lot of recipes here, there are some unique ones you’d want to check out.

Dirty Gourmet

Dirty Gourmet is a website dedicated entirely to outdoor cooking, and provides many recipes which are divided by type or by activity. You can browse all recipes suitable for backpacking or for bike touring, or browse just breakfast recipes or only snacks.

Recipes include beautiful images, which is a nice bonus, and each also specifies the number of servings, prep time, cook time and which activity it’s suitable for. A great source for outdoor recipes.

Love the Outdoors

While it does include some breakfast, dessert, main dish and side dish recipes, I’ve included Love the Outdoors for it’s other related tips. The Cooking Methods article will tell you all about the difference between camp stoves, charcoal, wood fires, and other methods; the Outdoor Kitchen Checklist includes a list of equipment that will make your outdoor cooking experience more enjoyable.

The site is a bit difficult to browse, but there’s some good information to be found on it.

Dutch Oven Dude

A Dutch oven is a cast iron cooking pot which can be used to make wonderful outdoor recipes. Dutch Oven Dude is a website dedicated to this cooking vessel, and includes detailed explanations on how to cook with a Dutch oven, how to choose one, how to take care of one, and of course, a list of Dutch oven recipes. If you want to get into Dutch oven cooking, this is a great place to start.

What do you like to cook on camping trips? Do you know of other great sources for camp recipes? Share these and any recipes and tips you know in the comments.

Image credit: oskarlin